Why does my google analytics show a massive discrepancy from facebook's reported website clicks?
-
We're running a Facebook news feed ad that is pointing at our homepage. Facebook says that for yesterday there were 47 website clicks. Google analytics shows 15 total visitors from facebook with 3 of them landing on the homepage. I understand that there is likely going to be some discrepancy with users accidentally clicking and clicking back before the page loads, but this seems a little insane. I tested the ad using a page that pulls the Analytics cookie data using php and it is working properly so I don't understand what's happening. The url isn't tagged with utm parameters, which is going to be fixed. Anyone experience this or have any insight as to what could be this issue? Is this click fraud?
Edit: For more clarification I was checking on my completely unfiltered google analytics profile/view.
-
I have the same thing but at a larger scale.
122k clicks according to facebook, 1450 visits according to Omniture... and no sales. That's the less optimized 2.5k€ I've spent on a campaign
-
My Facebook ad manager shows 3668 website clicks whereas in GA it only shows 1310.
-
We have exactly the same problem. According to Facebook 274 website clicks, but Google Analytics shows only 50. And this hasn't happened for the first time. Actually, this is the usual discrepancy in our Facebook campaigns. Probably most of the traffic is caused by bots, so a lot of Facebook budget is wasted for nothing....
-
Thanks for the response. That was all I could really find on the topic as well. I'm using the newest version of the asynchronous tracking code besides universal analytics. I understand the possibilities for discrepancies, even 50% might be understandable but my visitors in analytics is at 6% percent of recorded clicks at 3 out of 47 which just seems insane.
I guess I'll just have to suggest that we stop running those types of Facebook ads, at least for now.
-
I did some digging around and found some information:
https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10153294676310223
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/analytics/pHOQxwrYh_s
http://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/inaccurate-google-analytics-traffic-sources/
Don't shoot the messenger -- I cannot know whether these reasons are true for you. Just to summarize some possible issues from those links:
Ad clicks is not the same think as website visitors
Old Google Analytics code
People blocking cookies or having other setups that interfere with GA trackingI hope these resources might help!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How does Google Home Services Ads work?
Hi mozzers, I have a plumber client who would like to try the Google Home Services ads but I have not found a guideline on this just yet. Do you know how to set it up? Do I need to use adwords or is it under another google product? The more details you guys have the better! Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Best way to automize generation of google ads - API, scripts etc.
I am in the process of setting up a fresh adwords account for a recently launched ecommerce site with about 3000 products and would like to automize the generation of the ads based on a spreadsheet of our product database. I would like to have full control over the code to generate these ads and a programmer with knowledge in SOAP and javscript would be availlable to assist in implementation. Any recommendations? Would you use adwords API or rather adword scripts?
Paid Search Marketing | | lcourse
Do you know whether there may be any existing code for doing this that we could just adapt to our requirements?0 -
Will Google penalize a text ad if the display URL goes nowhere?
Today I had a colleague ask me if Google Adwords will penalize text ads that have display URLs that land on 404 pages. I fully understand the policy that the domains in display URLs and destination URLs have to match up or Google will disapprove the text ad. However if the display url contains the proper domain (and a target keyword phrase for a file folder) will Google penalize the text ad quality score if the display URL lands on a 404? I had trouble finding specific evidence for this.
Paid Search Marketing | | VanguardCommunications0 -
Facebook ads to people who like a particular brand or page
Can I target my facebook adds to only those users who like a brand or page? I have an exhibition coming up next year and would like to target those who like the brand page. I know I can target on interests etc but cannot see how I can target a particular page. Any advice greatly appreciated as I am sure others would be interested if this can be done. ThanksJames
Paid Search Marketing | | tempowebdesign0 -
Adwords & Analytics Different Product Listing Results
Hi We have recently set up a Product Listings ad campaign via AdWords and have seen some impressive initial figures in our AdWords account. However, when viewing data from the same period in Analytics it shows completely different statistics. For example, from 1st-16th June, AdWords shows 604 clicks and 29 conversions from our Product Listings campaign but Google Analytics only shows 23 clicks and 0 conversions across the same period. Any ideas why these variations show? Is there any additional tracking code that needs to be inserted at all? Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | instinctive0 -
Cost of Retargeting (Remarketing) Ad Clicks
If you run an Adwords banner campaign with retargeting, how is the cost per click determined? My hunch is that it would be different than text ads in search result pages.
Paid Search Marketing | | ProjectLabs0 -
Linking Adwords to Analytics for Multiple Clients
what is the best practice for this? Right now everything is under many different passwords and logins, yet conforming them all to one comes with a bunch of loopholes and bumps along the way. Does anyone know how to get a few clients under the same username and password (linking the AdWords and Analytics for each of them)?
Paid Search Marketing | | imageworks-2612900 -
Adwords and Analytics figures not matching up
We are currently running a A/B test on a landing page using only adwords to split the traffic. Looking at the figures in adwords has given us a higher number of conversions than the analytics is giving us in transactions. The conversion rate is also different. The only visitors this page is getting is from Adwords. Can someone please help us understand why this is? Cheers Al
Paid Search Marketing | | -Al-0